This morning at the start in La Rioja, there were still 447 km to cover on the last two days of the 2009 Dakar route. In the bike race, the gap between the first man in the general standings, Coma and his closest contender Despres was 1h29', or a little more than 13" to gain back per km for the Frenchman over the leader. Needless to say that this is almost mission impossible for the title holder who must have in mind the ordeal of this same adversary two years ago in the penultimate stage of the rally. The Catalan had hit a tree, losing therefore all chances of winning his second Dakar. 2007 seems so far away though and the Catalan did not panic today. After starting behind his main contender, Coma rode at his own pace, did not try to catch up on the first one to start. Just like yesterday, Cyril Despres gave a true demonstration of his riding skills. The KTM biker - alone in the lead - kept gaining ground on his rivals in the standings already relegated more than 1' behind him at CP1 (km 133). In the end, he wins his 5th stage of the rally and gets his 21st special stage victory in the Dakar with a 1’45" lead over Coma and a 2’47" lead over David Frétigné. In the general standings, the Spaniard keeps a 1h28" lead over Despres and a 1h34" lead over Frétigné. There are now only 227 km left to the finishing line.